// stream

christophe schweizer – trombone // sebastian gille – tenor and soprano saxophone // pablo held – piano // joris teepe – bass // billy hart – drums

1 one day (schweizer) // 2 cameo (held) // 3 winter (gille) // 4 motion (schweizer) // 5 glow (schweizer) // 6 you (schweizer) // 7 medipack (held) // 8 peter’s power (teepe) // 9 body and soul (heyman/green)

Christophe Schweizer’s STREAM, both the album title and the name of the band who recorded it, represents a new stage in his three-decade career. “I feel that the music we created together is a huge artistic success, and I’m extremely happy about how the collaboration between all the band members stimulated our performance. Everyone’s contributions as players, writers, and thinkers fit together into a picture the richness of which is be hard to imagine as coming from one single leader. Many recordings from the Jazz canon were conceived that way, and this is clearly one of the reasons why they achieved their status of greatness and public success.”

Producing an album which is in essence conceived as a dedication, or maybe rather a declaration of love, towards the artistic legacy, spirit, and person of one of it’s artists is an unconventional plan to begin with. If that artist is drummer Billy Hart, who turns 80 on November 29, 2020, the challenge could seem ambitious. However, Hart’s own artistic conception seems a perfect match for the approach chosen on STREAM. On all of his albums as a leader to this day he invites the participating musicians to contribute to the repertoire and to the shaping of the creative process, thus asserting his leadership in subtle, but all the more effective ways which evade verbal description – something which requires mastery not only of one’s art, which “Jabali”, as he is sometimes affectionately referred to in the scene, exemplifies, but also as a human being whose confidence becomes manifest in the form of humility.

“This is the kind of level us younger ones strive to reach, and that’s why simply being around this type of inspiration is such an invaluable learning experience. You have to be open to that mindset of course, and the fact that everyone at the session including Pablo and Sebastian, who hadn’t met Billy before, was completely tuned in is one of the factors why it all came together.”

Schweizer and Hart had recorded together previously on several occasions during their connection of more than twenty-five years, most recently on the album “The Broader Picture” (Enja/Yellowbird 2016), on which Schweizer arranged Hart’s compositions for the WDR Big Band Cologne and which received worldwide critical praise.

Bassist Joris Teepe, from the same generation as Schweizer, also shares a long history with Billy Hart and was a long time member of Rashied Ali’s group. The latter was the last drummer to collaborate with John Coltrane, who in turn counts among Hart’s major influences.

About pianist Pablo Held, Schweizer says, “ he is one of the most complete musicians I have come to know. To watch him and Billy connect during the recording was incredibly fun, and his contribution gives a lot of direction to the music”.

Sebastian Gille was added last minute to the lineup after Johannes Enders, originally one of driving forces in the genesis of the project, fell seriously ill. Schweizer had known Gille (recipient of the prestigious SWR Jazz Prize in 2018) since the latter’s days as a student. The boldness and competence of his playing and writing here show a fearless stylist with a great sensitivity towards his surroundings.

“Making an artistic statement always involves taking chances, and we all confronted the risk with excitement. There was little preparation time for the group, and many decisions were taken spontaneously during the recording session. I had written four new compositions using a new approach which hadn’t been tried and tested, and the material we all brought in was very diverse altogether. In the end, the sum of these things was what brought a lot of intense enjoyment to our creative process.”

From the emotionally engaging and dramatically building opener “One Day” in 7/4, written by Schweizer, the program continues via Pablo Held’s majestically swinging “Cameo” to Gille’s intensely introspectively slow rubato “Winter”, which starts as a Duo with himself and Hart. Teepe’s up tempo “Peter’s Power” unleashes free group improvisation at a high level of energy, and the undogmatic interpretation of the iconic standard “Body and Soul”, spontaneously added at the end of the session closes the set with a different perspective. The timelessly beautiful collection of music brims with rich harmony and melody, daring modernism, textural variety and energy – all masterfully engineered by Martin Ruch.

As a result, JazzThing magazine calls STREAM “an album which stands apart from everyday modern Jazz”, which is something to think about. As artists, to get media recognition is pleasing and valuable, but what ultimately counts is the difference the music makes to a listener.

“Looking back to that day in the studio and the road leading up to it, I gratefully realize that it’s one thing to put together a cast of great players and take them to the recording room, but whether the result is going to breathe any magic is a whole other story. Call it luck if you like – in that sense we certainly were fortunate because the mystery of the music was on our side. I think the music on this album makes the difference.”